In recent years, there have been great advancements in the speed, power, and complexity of integrated circuits, such as application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips, random access memory (RAM) chips, microprocessor (uP) chips, and the like. These advancements have made possible the development of system-on-a-chip (SOC) devices. A SOC device integrates into a single chip all (or nearly all) of the components of a complex electronic system, such as a wireless receiver (i.e., cell phone, a television receiver, and the like). SOC devices greatly reduce the size, cost, and power consumption of the overall system.
Many SOC devices contain peripheral device interfaces that communicate with external devices. For example, a SOC device may contain a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus interface or a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface communicating with one or more external devices. As part of a fault tolerant design, it is preferable to include short-circuit protection at an interface in order to protect the SOC device. If a short-circuit persists for more than a very brief period of time, the large current draw in the output line driver of the PCI bus interface or the USB interface may destroy the SOC device.
However, conventional short-circuit protection devices typically disable an interface or even an entire system if a short-circuit is detected. User intervention is then required to reset the device after the short-circuit has been removed.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for integrated circuits having improved short circuit protection. In particular, there is a need for a short-circuit protection apparatus for use in an electronic system that does not require user intervention to reset or re-enable the electronic system after a short-circuit has occurred.